Grilled greek salad with chicken

Okay, Okay...so I'm getting a bit repetitive gushing about the wonderful salad recipes in Ellie's Cookbook Weeknight Wonders, but, it's true. Her salads are so good and this one was no exception. Really good!

I'll give you that there are more than 1 million google recipes for a grilled greek salad but that doesn't make it less good, right? I seem to recall one of the Iron Chef's ridiculing the notion of grilling romaine lettuce (Flay?) but it really adds interest and a diversity of texture to the salad. Grilled lemon is fun too. This salad really rocked and was a complete meal! Props to EK for making it good and making it healthy.

The only thing we considered changing next time is a pinch more salt at the end -- Julie added it and said it made all the difference.

Mozzarella,, tHomato, and peach salad

Another great salad from EK. No shock there. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the book is the worth the price for the salads alone! 5 Stars, 10 on 10, awesome...you get the message. It was super easy to make and only 270 calories. Clean-up a breeze too.

We used a mango instead of a peach (seasonal thing) and the mango delivered enough sweetness to make the salad work. I might suggest a variation to this recipe. (Good chance to see if Ellie actually reads this blog).

Instead of tossing the greens in oil and vinegar, I suggest whisking the oil and vinegar with some finely minced rosemary and an equal part of maple syrup. It'll impact a nice rosemary taste and really work to cut the bitterness of the arugula too. I've made a similar salad before and it's really good.

Thai vegetable curry with tofu

We had time to make dinner last night -- just no time to blog about it. First, credit goes to Julie for cooking this meal from A to Z. She even did the grocery shopping! Thanks sweetheart. This dish started out with an incredible disadvantage. Having had the orange-seseame chicken stir-fry with snow peas the night before, well, it's a little like following Lea Michelle in a talent competition -- it never had a chance!

That said, and given that it was a vegetarian dish, this recipe fought hard to make an impact and it mostly succeeded. We rate it as pretty darned good though maybe a bit bland. I think on the next go-around I'll double the amount of red curry a paste to amp it up a bit.

At 260 calories it was a nice meal to be sure. It took less than 30 minutes and the clean-up was a breeze. If I am ever charged with cooking vegetarian for friends I'd proudly serve this dish (taking full credit for the recipe)!

Orange-sesame chicken stir-fry with snow peas

WOW! This was excellent. One thing about Ellie Krieger -- her salads and her stir-frys are incredible and this one was no exception. Truly and excellent dish and only 370 calories with none of the hidden nasties that so often come with restaurant stir-frys.

My favorite Sous Chef (Julie) handled the wok tonight for dinner - it's her biannual tradition - and she did an outstanding job. I managed the ingredients and prep work but she sautéed the chicken and then managed the wet ingredients. Such a pretty girl in the kitchen or out!. We made no modifications to this recipe although we did zest the orange into thin strips using a zester and left them in the dish. Served with whole-grain rice. Fabulous.

Thanks EK for the great recipe. Thanks too for your sense of humor when I posted the following to twitter.

Ellie Krieger (James) Bearded

Mediterranean Chopped Salad AND Lamb Kabobs with Pomegranate Sauce

Tonight we went with a Mediterranean theme -- pretty darned good! Ellie's salad once again failed to disappoint. I'll tell you what - people that toss a bunch of iceberg lettuce into a bowl before covering it with nasty 'ol store bought dressing are really missing out! I'd buy this book just for the salads.

The Mediterranean Chopped Salad was absolutely delicious and refreshing. I chilled it for a bit before serving it and I also shook the tHomato pieces in a colander to get rid of the pulpy membrane. So good - Julie, myself and the giant all loved it! The Lamb Kabobs with Pomegranate Sauce were less good but that's really not the fault of the recipe -- I overcooked the kabobs to just short of well done. A couple of things about this recipe: 1.) It's a messy time with balsamic reductions, 2.) there will certainly be nasty/sticky dishes to clean up, 3.) I cooked it on a range-top grill pan -- next time I'll use the outdoor grill, 4.) I could not find a pomegranate to seed so we omitted that from the recipe.

So...the bottom-line is simple. Awesome food in 30 minutes or less. Really well conceived and executed recipe by Ellie Krieger. Or should I say JAMES BEARD NOMINATED ELLIE KRIEGER!

Chinese Vegetable Soup with Pork

Been away for a while...sick for a few weeks, traveling for a few, getting ready to move... the blog suffered (but we tried to maintain a healthy diet nonetheless). For lunch today we got back "into" the whole Ellie Krieger adventure (we missed you EK) and made some pretty tasty soup. Julie summed it up best as tasting "super-healthful" and as "good trending to very good". I thought it lacked punch! so I added some hot sauce to the soup to kick it up a notch!

The recipe was quick and really easy to follow. I do think there was a slight error in the recipe because it did not fully instruct when to add the pork back to the soup pot. I added it with the baby bok choy, etc. It's a one-pot recipe (love) and I used two cutting boards (raw pork) but the clean-up was easy. The yield was substantial....you get a ton of soup to enjoy -- we struggled to finish our bowls full! Thanks for the recipe EK!

Spinach, herb and goat cheese frittata

Been a while since I've been able to cook from this cookbook. I've missed it.

I made the spinach, herb and goat cheese frittata for dinner this evening and served it with sliced tomatoes drizzled with Italian herb-infused olive oil and a slice of crusty whole-wheat bread. It was a delicious and beautiful way to get back into the habit of cooking from this wonderful cookbook. My photo doesn't really match the book photo but I attribute that to my lame-a$$ electric broiler. Other than that the recipe was fast, easy and earthy delicious. I was concerned I would leave the meal feeling hungry but not at all the case. All I need to know; If real men don't eat quiche; do they eat frittatas?